Reflecting strides made by the country’s educational institutions in Engineering, Management Studies and Marketing, the Indian School of Mines (IIT-ISM) Dhanbad and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), followed closely by IIT Kharagpur, have emerged as the top-ranked Indian institutions in the QS Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings by Subject 2026, released on Wednesday.
IIT-ISM Dhanbad ranked 21 in ‘Engineering – Mineral and Mining’, while IIM Ahmedabad ranked 21 in two subjects – Business and Management Studies and Marketing. IIT-ISM Dhanbad was the highest-ranked Indian institution last year as well, ranking 20 in Mineral and Mining Engineering.
In the broad ‘Engineering and Technology’ category, five IITs feature in the global top 100, but have seen a drop in the rankings compared to last year. The top performer in the category, IIT Delhi, has dropped 10 ranks – from 26 last year to 36 this year. Both IIT Kanpur (from 72 last year to 86 this year) and IIT Bombay (from 28 last year to 42 this year) have dropped 14 ranks.
Explaining the drop among the IITs in the Engineering and Technology category, QS said, “For IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, the employer reputation score has dropped more significantly than the academic reputation indicator. This highlights the importance of ensuring that graduates have the right skills that employers are seeking. Both have seen their scores in the citations indicator fall this year too.”
As per the rankings, IIT Bombay’s employer reputation score fell from 88.6 last year to 84.3 this year, while IIT Delhi saw a drop from 87.2 to 83.5.
“Additionally, this year has seen heightened competition globally. Institutions such as Seoul National University, University College London, University of Texas at Austin, University of British Columbia, Institut Polytechnique de Paris rose in key subjects within the broad faculty area to enter the top 30,” QS added.
The global higher education analysts noted that India has seen “rapid strides” in Engineering, particularly in Computer Science, adding that “the most dramatic concentration of improvement” among Indian institutions is in Engineering.
India saw a total of 44 entries in the Computer Science and Information Systems category this year, up from 42 last year. According to QS, the US, UK, Germany and France, all saw fewer Computer Science entries in 2026, while India’s representation expanded.
All six Indian institutions in the top 100 in Computer Science have improved their rankings compared to last year. The top performer in the subject is IIT Bombay (ranked 44, up from 76 last year), followed by IIT Delhi (ranked 45, up from 64 last year); ranked 65 is IIT Kanpur, 67 is IIT Kharagpur and at 79 stands IIT Madras. The only private institution in the top 100 in this category is Vellore Institute of Technology (ranked 86).
On the gains among Indian institutions in Computer Science and a fall in the broader Engineering and Technology category, QS told The Indian Express: “Computer Science is one of eight narrow subject areas that sit under the broad faculty area… Across India’s 18 entries in the Engineering & Technology broad faculty area, only four improved in the academic reputation indicator (Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, IIT BHU Varanasi and IIT Hyderabad). However, just four rose in employer reputation (Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Anna University, IIT BHU Varanasi and IIT Hyderabad). It is important to note that the rankings are relative and that these results do not suggest that IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay have gotten worse, but that global competitors have improved at a faster pace.”
A total of 99 Indian institutions feature in the global rankings this year, up from 79 last year. In terms of the number of institutions represented in the rankings, India stands fourth globally, after the US (228 institutions), China (158) and the UK (114).
On the flip side, QS noted that “the picture is not uniformly positive” with Arts and Humanities remaining “a weak spot”.
In the broad subject area of Arts and Humanities, no Indian institution features in the top 100. The highest ranked Indian institution is Delhi University at 231, which saw a sharp drop compared to last year’s rank of 160. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has also seen a steep fall in this category, from 177 last year to 260 this year.
Similarly, in Life Sciences and Medicine, no Indian institution is in the top 100, with the best performer being AIIMS Delhi (217). In the Medicine category, AIIMS ranked 105, up from 145 last year.
Among the top 10 highest ranked Indian institutions across subjects, there are two private universities – Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences at rank 25 for Dentistry and OP Jindal Global University at 35 for Law.
The rankings cover around 1,900 institutions across 100 countries.
A key focus area for the Centre will be building research infrastructure, including comprehensive financial databases and analytical resources, to support empirical finance research in India, as mentioned in the press release. 
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